The Common Raven
by Diniseni
Summary: Naesala didn't like these days. He felt so good... and then he didn't, just like that.


Well, I was at a book store one day, and I found a little book with some info on birds. I found that common ravens do eat garbage, and that inspired this. Yes, the facts are real, I checked them.

I don't own Fire Emblem.

Read on!

* * *

It was days like today that Naesala didn't like. One moment, he was feeling pretty good, the next… he wasn't.

A Begnion cargo ship had been sailing by, he was bored and needed some gold, so what the heck? Why not? As it turned out, the ship belonged to some goody-goody (not) noble and was full of valuable treasure. Score! Or not, that was when the good feeling disappeared. Honestly, it wasn't his fault that the ship had sailed right into Phoenicis territory while they were raiding it, what was he supposed to do? Leave it? Hell no.

That's not what Tibarn thought. This disagreement lead to an argument between the two laguz kings-and the hawk king's "eyes"-while, unknowingly to the arguing trio, the rest of the hawks and ravens finished off the crew and made off with the loot. Well, at least Kilvas got some of it. The down side: Tibarn had won the argument and Naesala didn't get anything as the other ravens were unlikely to give up any of their treasure. What a great way to kill free time. Literally.

When he returned to Kilvas, the raven king was not in a good mood. He shrugged off Nealuchi's advising that he "should really finish his work", and told the old crow that a king could do what he wanted and this king wanted to have some peace and quite so that he didn't have to think about hawks. Or any other laguz, for that matter.

So, why not go to the library? That's what Nealuchi always did when he needed to cool down. The king looked around the medium sized room, the walls covered with shelves filled with books, and most other available surfaces covered as well (maybe they should stop stealing books on raids). Kilvas' library could easily be called valuable, seeing as a vast majority of the books were stolen from rich people. Some were fresh from the shop, their pages held with shiny bindings flecked with gold-which was probably the only reason they had them.

It was completely silent as Naesala walked around the room, eyes skating over the many different titles until he came upon a rather worn book. _The Everyday Guide to Birds, Interesting Facts and-_ oh, this was definitely in the hands of some silly human before. He smirked and took it off the shelf anyway, sitting on the only available surface, Nealuchi's chair.

Sparrow, blue jay, and cardinal - the freakiest looking heron Naesala had _ever_ seen! He actually stopped to stare at the long-necked, spiky-feathered bird. The resemblance was incredible, did Reyson look like that to humans? He can't, Reyson was more on the beautiful side, and this thing was… just down-right scary. He frowned when he saw the red ink spattered all over the page in the shape of an X, and flipped away from it.

Then he came to the _Common Raven_, an ugly drawing of the black bird was drawn underneath the title and all Naesala could think was: hope I'm not related that that. How pathetic, he was about to read a section on his own kind, as if he already didn't know what he did on a daily basis.

_Widespread across Tellius, and so highly populated in some areas it is considered a pest…_ He resented that. Those birds were probably there first. But as his eyes traveled down the page, he couldn't help but smirk and let that good feeling return.

_Studies in Crimea show that the raven is one of the most intelligent species of bird, using superior cunning and problem solving abilities…_Ha, eat that Tibarn, and what does this say about you? He quickly scanned the rest of the book. Ha ha, nothing. He felt silly but superior now to the other king, maybe this visit was a good idea, he felt much better now. See, ravens aren't stupid, ignore those hawks…

_Usually mate for life…quick to become shy or cowardly… watch where other raven's hide food or treasure and steal it… _Well, he knew that, how many times had he stolen things that Tibarn had tried to hide when they were younger? _Juvenile ravens quite playful… _Really? He hadn't noticed when ever he went into the cities. _And help adults to raise younger... _Not that he had a younger sibling but he knew someone who did.

And so, let the good feeling disappear and the reason he didn't like these days return.

_Usually eat berries, nuts, meat… _Well, duh, what else are they going to eat? I know this, he thought, Nealuchi practically drilled into his head what he should eat everyday. And then he reached the end of the list, and the entire right side of his face twitched in either disgust or disbelief.

_They also eat garbage._

_What?_ He most certainly did _not _eat garbage! That is just downright insulting! Even as a child he never dared to eat garbage! But these were only common ravens, he was a raven _laguz_! How could he be related (however distantly) to these things? What would Tibarn say if he saw this?

No! The entire reason he _came_ here was so he didn't have to think about that hawk!

Great. Just fantastic. Eating garbage... He should flay the person that wrote this and burn the book, lest any other laguz found it and used it against him... Damn it! Naesala whacked the book against his forehead multiple times, trying to clear his head of anything laguz related. Or at least of Tibarn. Darned hawks probably don't eat garbage...

He looked over the top of the book, checking to see if anyone was watching. There was only one thing to do.. Quickly hiding the book under his shirt, Naesala left the library where he found the damnable information on his very distant cousins.

He wondered if Nealuchi still had work for him...


End file.
